At any time of the day or night, a new beacon of health care is shining in Fort Smith. At first glance, Fort Smith ER & Hospital resembles a large urgent care clinic, but the clean, brightly lit building is anything but ordinary.
Inside, patients find a sparkling new concept in emergency health care, a standalone, physician-owned and operated hospital equipped to handle virtually anything that would walk through the doors of a standard emergency department attached to a hospital.
Opened three years ago, Fort Smith ER & Hospital provides patients an alternative in emergency care which avoids the long waits and congestion of regular emergency rooms without sacrificing medical expertise.
“We strive to provide efficient care with the only difference being ours is a little bit smaller facility with eight emergency beds and five inpatient beds,” says Dr. John Weddle, DO, physician-owner. “Our wait times are much shorter than the typical ER, we strive to welcome people at the front door, we stress cleanliness, and we even provide a few additional amenities such as snacks and drinks. This new model has been well-received by the community.”
The specialty hospital is dramatically efficient, with wait times under fifteen minutes compared to thirty minutes to three hours at a standard ER. It also partners with other medical facilities to help balance patient loads.
The concept of a standalone emergency department is relatively new but growing fast. According to Becker’s Hospital Review, a mere one percent of emergency departments were freestanding in 2001. Twenty-three years later, off-campus emergency departments (OCED) dominate the medical landscape with sixty-five percent market share, per Grand View Research. Independent freestanding emergency departments (IFED), those facilities not owned by a hospital, represented about two hundred locations in 2023, a number that is expected to grow about six percent annually through 2030.
Fort Smith ER & Hospital is part of a Texas-based health care management and operations company and one of twenty-four quality care facilities in eleven states, with ten more hospitals currently in the works. The Fort Smith hospital is the company’s second location in the state, behind Cabot Emergency Hospital, with a third Arkansas facility currently in development. Fort Smith ER & Hospital employs nearly seventy people, including twelve physicians, ten of whom are also owners.
An Oklahoma native who has worked in a variety of emergency medical settings throughout his twenty-eight-year career, John says he wanted to be part of the company for the freedom it affords him and his colleagues in serving patients.
“Too many physicians who go to work for larger corporations as employees are removed from the decision-making process of what’s best for their patients or best for their care,” he says. “The ability to make decisions without multiple layers of bureaucracy that hamstring a lot of larger hospitals is definitely attractive for us as physicians.”
The physician-owners had input on everything from the layout and configuration of the Fort Smith hospital space to what medical technology should be at the ready to help diagnose cases, including in-house radiology comprised of CT, ultrasound, x-ray, and MRI.
“Having that input has been very, very rewarding,” John says. “It has allowed us as a group to have discussions and decide which equipment or supplies we want to implement, and then to make that happen quickly. I think the combination of physicians and staff involvement in decision-making makes this a very positive environment to work in.”
John shares that the business model is also effective in boosting employee retention, which is particularly important given the current nationwide shortage of nurses and other health care workers.
“Our staff retention has been great,” he notes. “We have twelve physicians working at our facility, each from varied backgrounds across northwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. We also have nurses and staff we’ve built relationships with over the years, many of whom we were able to bring with us to this facility. My chief nursing officer is someone I first worked with in an emergency room in Fort Smith more than twenty-five years ago, and I’ve also known my charge nurse for over two decades.
“The culture here is different. We provide a welcoming, positive environment that isn’t as stressful, which means we don’t face the high turnover that so many understaffed facilities struggle with. Larger hospitals, especially during and after COVID, have battled to maintain enough staff and deliver consistent care, and many remain stretched thin even now. It’s been a very tough five years for them.”
John admits that while the concept had plenty of positives, it took the community a little time to warm up to it.
“When we started, we had to try to differentiate ourselves from convenient care and urgent care. We also had to distinguish ourselves from a primary care facility,” he says. “That’s why we have the somewhat awkward and cumbersome name of Fort Smith ER and Hospital, which was an attempt to educate from Day One what we actually offer.
“We also had to shift the mindset of some partners when we first took on this project. Although they were generally familiar with the idea of a freestanding emergency department, it was still a relatively new concept. It wasn’t until we began seeing patients that the reality set in, we truly are a hospital. Once we started admitting patients and managing more complex cases, word spread quickly throughout the community.”
While it took the public some time to fully understand the business model, there’s no question it has now been embraced. John notes that Fort Smith ER & Hospital is already preparing to expand beyond its original 20,000 square feet, adding 3,000 more to create additional patient rooms and meet growing demand.
“As we’ve grown over the past three years, we’ve identified service lines in our area that needed greater support,” he says. “Recently, we welcomed a cardiologist to our team and are developing an echocardiography service. In addition, our outpatient imaging services, including MRI, CT, and ultrasound, have become a robust and well-received resource in the community.
“We partner closely with local clinics and primary care providers, and we work with area businesses to treat work-related injuries and illnesses, helping keep higher-acuity ERs from becoming overcrowded. That approach has fueled strong word of mouth in the community that what we offer is something special.”
Fort Smith ER & Hospital is open 24/7 to serve you. Have questions? Visit fortsmithhospital.com, call 479.974.9403, or for direct care, visit 4701 Phoenix Avenue, in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
